Parental involvement in children's foreign language learning : improving 6-12 year-old pupils' English through parent-school interaction: a case study in China

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Ma Xiaoyi

Parental involvement in children’s foreign language learning:

Improving 6-12 year-old pupils’ English through parent-school interaction A case study in China

University of Eastern Finland Philosophical Faculty

School of Applied Educational Science and Teacher Education, Joensuu campus

Master’s Degree Programme in Early Language Education for Intercultural Communication jointly implemented by the University of Eastern Finland and Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia

Master’s thesis in Education March 2017

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ITÄ-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO – UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND

Tiedekunta – Faculty Philosophical faculty

Osasto – School

School of Applied Educational Science and Teacher Education Tekijät – Author

Ma Xiaoyi

Työn nimi – Title

Parental involvement in children’s foreign language learning: Improving 6-12 year-old pupils’ English through parent-school interaction

Pääaine – Main subject Työn laji – Level Päivämäärä – Date

Sivumäärä – Number of pages

Foreign language education

Pro gradu -tutkielma

28. 03. 2017 86 Sivuainetutkielma

Kandidaatin tutkielma Aineopintojen tutkielma Tiivistelmä – Abstract

Many researchers discussed parental invovlvement in children’s foreign language learning and the parent school interaction programs which involve parents in supporting children’s English learning. However, children’s age and motivation factors in parental involvement, especially in parent school interaction programs were seldom discussed. This study explored the ways of parental involvement in children’s English learning in an English training centre in China.

The study deeply described the current parent school interactions in the Chinese context. Most importantly, children’s age and motivation factors have been drawn and discussed from the parents’ and school’s perspectives. Data was collected by interviewing both parents and the school staff in an English training centre in China.The results of the study indicate that, in the English training centre context, parents support their children through asking children their

learning, homework accompanying and supervising, communicating with teachers, attending school activities and signing for extra curricular courses. Parents notice and understand the age and motivation of their children’s English learning.

However, they consider less these factors in actual supporting. Both parents and the school start considering children’s age and motivation factors. The English training school has launched programs such as, direct phone call, PTM, Open door, we chatting, and arranging cooking life clubs to involve parents. Parents and teachers hope to have long- term cooperation with each other in the future parent school interaction. The school is planning to arrange Parent Academy and improve the current parent apps to involve parents. Parents hope there are specific contents supervising courses for them while the school is planning to solve general problems parents meet in future Parent Academy.

Avainsanat – Keywords

Parental involvement, parent school interaction, foreign language learning, age factor, motivation factor

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List of tables

Table 1. Epstein's typology of parental involvement (Epstein, 2009, p.16) 6

Table 2. four main ways in which parents can help their children's literacy development (Nutbrown, Hannon,

& Morgan, 2005, p.50) 11

Table 3. From Extrinsic to Intrinsic Motivation in Educational Institutions (Brown, 1994, p.40) 24

Table 4. Background information of parent participants 26

Table 5. Overview of data collection and analysis 27

Table 6. Categories from the theoretical background 27

Table 7. Interview questions relating to the theoretical background 28 Table 8. Interview questions relating to the research questions 29

Table 9. Category and coding 32

Table 10. Children's motivation in learning English in the current case study 48 Table 11. Feedback from parents about the current running parent school interaction programs 57 Table 12. Forms of parental involvement in the current case study 63

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1 INTRODUCTION

Many researchers in the world (Epstein, 1995; Henry, 1996; Hoover-Dempsey, 1997; Henderson & Mapp, 2012) have discussed the importance of parental involvement in children’s academic learning. The ways of parental involvement can be various (Shim, 2013; Lee, 2006; Waterman, 2009). In Children’s foreign language learning, effective parental involvement has great impact. Strategies of involving parents in children’s foreign language learning were discussed recently (Nutbrown, Hannon, and Morgan, 2005). The ma- jorities of the recent studies about home school interactions are in the North America. According to Wei (2011), Chinese parents have strong willingness to support their children in English learning. English is taught as school subject from primary school in China. Children’s motivation of learning a foreign language is considered as important issue in parental involvement in foreign language learning (Forey, College,

&Sampson). The previous studies about parent school interactions seldom mentioned about considering children’s age and motivation factors either in the strategies planning or conducting. The present case study is going to describe forms of parental involvement and parent school interaction in mainland, China. It focuses on what parents, teachers, and school are currently doing to support children in learning English, what their future expectation and plans are, and how they consider about children’s age and motivation factors when supporting.

2 CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS

The concepts and definitions of parental involvement have been discussed in many researches. Parental involvement refers to the amount of participation a parent has when it comes to schooling and her child’s life (Ireland, 2014). It is also defined as “parents’ interactions with schools and with their children to promote academic success” (Hill, et al., 2004, p.1491). Epstein (2009) suggested six types of interactions that can help family and school to influence children’s learning.

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Table 1. Epstein's typology of parental involvement (Epstein, 2009, p.16)

Parenting Help families to establish home environments to support learners.

Communications School-to-home communications through the design & use of effective forms.

Volunteering The enrolment and organization of a school’s volunteer programme.

Learning at home Help families assist their children with homework and recognize other opportunities at home.

Decision making Include parents, students, and community members in the school in decision making process.

Collaborating with the community

The recognition and integration of resources, services from the community

Epstein (2009) focused more on creating home environment and effective home school interaction. How- ever, according to Grolnick and Slowiaczeck(1994), the definition of parental involvement is more general, it is “the dedication of resources by the parent to the child within a given domain”. More specifically, parental involvement is also defined as “parental participation in the educational processes and experiences of their children”. (Jynes, 2007, p.83). Jynes (2007) then categorized parental involvement into general and specific involvement. The specific parental involvement includes “communication, homework, parental expectation, reading, attendance and participation, and parental style” (Jynes, 2007, p.89). Barton et al (2004) argued that parents could become “a part of the fabric of the school” (p.7).

Parents involve in children’s learning in many ways. Shim (2013) focused on the Dynamics of teacher- parent interactions. She explored effective ways of improving English skills with the help of teacher-parent interactions. Lee (2006) discussed ways of helping children through engaging parents into school programmes. Many researches outside China can be found in creating the parent school interaction programs.

Waterman (2009) found that both parents and school staff can be motivated by collaboration activities such as, supporting completion of homework, skills related to parent-principal dialogue. Home visit is highly

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recommended to develop by a mutual understanding for both home and school cultures (Panferov, 2010).

Furthermore, a pilot project was conducted involving parents in the form of helping children learning at home by CEAE (an educational non-profit organization). The CEAE supported the parents with various kinds of activities and materials. The main topics of this project are: programme introduction and orienta- tion,” creating a positive learning environment at home, understanding and supporting your children’s learning needs, connecting with school, connecting with the community”(Jasinski, 2012, p.226). In-home supporting was found the most efficient programme. It was proved that amusing and interesting daily activities could improve English skills (Jasinski, 2012). As refer to in-home involvement, the result (Vera, et al, 2012) indicated that the most common in-home type of involvement was monitoring homework and asking children about their school day while the least common was utilizing community resources. It also revealed that language barrier was the most highly reported barrier in supporting the children in learning English. Parents with more education tended to be more engaged with their children’s English learning. The findings indicated children’s success in school is both affected by parents’ education background, aspiration and school’s environment. Utilizing routines such as time management was reported to be most significantly in parents’

aspirations, thus a trust relationship between school staff and parents increase the willingness of parent to engage in school activities (Pena, 2000; Carreon, Drake, & Barton, 2005). Epstein (2011) believed that more attention can be paid to the development of students and the impact of cooperation from school and parents.

In the Chinese context, the most common form of parental involvement was found to be homework supervision (Li & Rao, 2011).

3 PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN GENERAL

3.1 Parental involvement in children’s academic education

When young children are in the process of learning a foreign language there are many factors which may affect their learning success, such as teachers, schools, and parents. It seems that schools and teachers tend to be focussed more as research objects when examining factors influencing young children’s foreign language learning.

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However, research findings (Emerson, et al, 2012) also indicate that positive parental engagement can do momentous impact in children’s academic achievement. Furthermore, Emerson et al (2012) argued that when the linking of families, teachers and students was created the learning outcomes turn out to be out- standing. Parents help their children in any ways. They help their kids at home, such as assisting with homework (Ingram, wolfe, & Liberman, 2007; Patall, Cooper, & Robinson, 2008). Through parent-teacher interaction, parents get information how their children do at school and what they need to support(Shim, 2013; Baumann, 1997). Through school involvement activities, parents have the chance to attend some vol- untary work or join activities in through school trains them to support their children in education (Nutbrown, Hannon, and Morgan, 2005). Actually, School-family partnerships have been found to be the most influential factors in improving students’ achievement, especially for English learners (Auerbach, 1995; Moll et al, 1992; Snider, 2000; Valdes, 2001). Many researchers suggested programs engaging parents in supporting their children’s English language learning (e.g. Neuman, 1995; Ngwaru, & Kwasi, 2010; Kavanagh &

Hickey, 2013;2014; Timmons & Pelletier, 2015; ). The specific procedures of these programs will be discussed in chapter 3.4.

Recently, focusing on the influential factors of parental involvement in children’s academic learning, some meta-analyses concluded that parental aspirations and expectations are the most influential factors of their children’s academic success across elementary, middle and secondary school-aged children (Fan and Chen 2001; Hill and Tyson 2009; Jeynes 2005, 2007; Patall et al. 2008). Especially, Hill and Tyson(2009) found that among the different types of parental involvement, “parental involvement that creates an understanding about the purposes, goals, and meaning of academic performance; communicates expectations about involvement; and provides strategies that students can effectively use has the strongest positive relation with achievement” (Hill & Tyson, 2009, p.758). Similar finding from Jynes (2005) indicated that parental expectation and style affects most positively in student’s academic achievement.

The importance of parental involvement in children’s education has drawn many researchers interest.

There are many reasons for developing school, family and community partnerships. Epstein (1995) argues that they can improve school programmes and school climate, provide family services and support, improve parents’ skills and leadership, connect others in the school and in the community, and help teachers with

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their work. She further claims that parental involvement does help in children’s future study and life.

Henry(1996) argued that the benefits of parental involvement are “to gain access to the knowledge that parents have of their children; to make better decision, to enhance learning opportunities, and to build support for schools” (Henry, 1996:16-17). Furthermore, he claims that instead of demanding from parents, educators should focus on children and their needs and then to find out how parents can be involved as a part of the educational conversation. Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (1997) revealed that three most influential factors that affect parental involvement are:

(a) parental role construction,

(b) parents’ sense of efficacy for helping children succeed in school, and

(c) parents’ perceptions of the general invitations, demands and opportunities for involvement presented by children and their school. (Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler , 1997, p.31)

Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (1997) believed “the knowledge of parental involvement and its influence on educational outcomes for children is likely to be enhanced as researchers and policy makers focus on the benefit it may create for all involved in the process-child, parent, school, and the community as a whole.”

(Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler , 1997, p.6).

According to Henderson & Mapp (2012), students with more involved parents tend to achieve higher academic results in school and they also have better social skills. The research also indicated that the cooperation through families, schools and community enhance the students’ more attendance, and better emotion to school. The result of the research with students’ academic results and parental involvement indicated that parents’ aspirations and expectations were the most influential factor while parental home supervision has the weakest relationship (Fan & Chen, 2001). Hill and Tyson (2009) conducted meta analysis in middle school and found that among the different types of parental involvement, “parental involvement that creates an understanding about the purposes, goals, and meaning of academic performance; communicates expectations about involvement; and provides strategies that students can effectively use has the strongest positive relation with achievement” (Hill & Tyson, 2009, p.758). Jynes (2005) found that there is a strong relationship between parental involvement and student’s achievement in urban primary school. Parental expectation and style affects most positively in student’s academic achievement. Teachers can also be influenced by

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parental involvement. There was a meta- analysis was conducted also in urban secondary school (Jynes, 2005) revealed the overall parental involvement positively affect students’ academic achievement. It also indicated that parental involvement programs could positively affect children’s academic achievement, especially when the schools initiate a program to involve parents. Parent training strongly influence the quality of homework completion (Patall, Cooper, & Robinson, 2008). Parents who have high educational expectation have the most positive effects on their children’s attainments. Teacher’s expectation also highly affect children’s learning outcome. The students’ attainment reach high when home school partnership develops.

Parents’ belief affects children’s reading motivation positively (Baker, Scher, & Mackler, 1997)

Furthermore, parents’ positive attitude make students’ learning strengthened (Alton-Lee, 2003). Actually, Biddulph, et al (2003) found parents who have high educational expectation have the most positive effects on their children’s attainments. Teacher’s expectation also highly affects children’s learning outcome. The students’ attainment reaches high when home school partnership develops. (Biddulph, et al., 2003). Espe- cially for reading, Parents’ belief affects children’s motivation positively. (Baker & Mackler, 1997). Parent training strongly influence the quality of homework completion (Patall, Cooper, & Robinson, 2008). Instead of examining, the factors relating to the teaching methods the school-external factors were analysed in Fin- nish Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) program in English language learning (Aro & Erd- mann, 2015). It indicated that among the school-external factors (home activities, parental future expectations, direct home exposure to English, & Parents’ level of education) parental expectation was the most influential factors to the children’s English competence (Aro & Erdmann, 2015).

3.2 Parental involvement in children’s foreign language learning in general

When children are learning a foreign language parents’ effective involvement can do great help to support their children’s foreign language learning. However, there are not many researches focusing in parental involvement in specifically supporting children’s foreign language learning. Gardner (1985) mentioned about the influence from teachers and peers, especially he called for the researching in the role of parent in

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children’s second language learning. According to Nutbrown, Hannon, and Morgan (2005), the four key roles for parents in their children’s early literacy development in mother tongue are as refer to the table 2.

Table 2. Four main ways in which parents can help their children's literacy development (Nutbrown, Hannon, & Morgan, 2005, p.50)

O opportunities R recognition I interaction M model

According the ORIM framework, specific strategies were designed and conducted in parental supporting programs in fulfil the aforementioned four roles of parents (opportunities, recognition, interaction, and model). Especially in helping developing oral language, opportunities to develop phonological awareness, storytelling and talking about literacy were highlighted. The program actually involved siblings and fathers.

The program also includes group events, such as farm visit, picnic, and storytelling. It provided parents with the opportunities to have their own “voice” being heard (Nutbrown, Hannon, and Morgan, 2005).

Kavanagh & Hickey (2013) examined the obstacles that prevent the parental involvement in children’s Irish language learning in immersion school context in Ireland. The obstacles were from different perspectives, which were parents, children, school and communities. From the parents’ perspective, some of the parents were less proficiency in Irish language, thus, they were not confident in helping their children in learning the target language. Some of the parents with high Irish proficiency still did not succeed in interact- ing with their children in Irish very well due to the reason that their children did not respond well. The parents also expressed the idea that if they communicate with their children in Irish while other family members who were not proficient in the target language would be excluded. From the children’s perspective, they were not active in cooperating with their parents’ attempting in talking in Irish. The reason was that they perceived Irish should be only spoken in school environment. From the perspective of the school and communities, less appropriate resources in the target languages are provided as well as less appropriate invita-

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tions/opportunities for involving the parents were provided. A study was conducted by Phillipson (2011) in Hong Kong, China to explore the external parental affective factors in children’s English, Chinese, and mathematics learning. The factors which were examined are parental education, parental income, parental school involvement, parental home involvement, parental belief, and parental expectation (Wei, 2011). The result showed among those above-mentioned factors, parental expectation played most effective role in children’s English and Chinese language achievement. The Chinese parents’ willingness of supporting their children in English learning turned out to be extremely high (Wei, 2011). Wei (2011) compared BE (Bilin- gual Education) parents’ and Non BE parents’ perception of supporting their children’s English learning.

The findings revealed that both parents consider English as a key feature in their children’s future study and working. They believed that English was critically more important to their children than to themselves.

Teaching English only as a subject turned out is not popular in parents. From the parents’ view, the Chi- nese-English BE was highly expected. Parents perceive that the Chinese-English BE could equip their children in improving their children’s English proficiency.

3.3 Ways of parental involvement in children’s academic learning in China

Parental involvement in different cultures has different characteristics. In China, parents expect their children to have high scores in their tests. They focus on their children’s learning. Mostly, the parenting style can be supervising at home, or sending their children to attend extracurricular courses in training schools. Lau, Li and Rao (2011) confirmed Chinese parents mostly supervise their children at home. Ac- cording to them, parents’ instruction, language and cognitive activities and homework involvement were found to make important effect on students’ readiness. Especially in mainland China, the characteristics of the parental involvement has been discussed by Zou et al (2013), which are home work supervision, communication with children about school learning, investing a lot of money in extra-curricular training, and making their whole efforts to prepare their children to pass the exams and preparing them for seeking a better life.

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3.4 Parent school interaction in children’s foreign language learning outside China context

The majority of recent studies about home-school interactions exists in North America where many programs can be found in helping immigrant families to involve in their children’s English learning. (e.g.Kuma, 2011; Collier & Auerbach, 2011; Deborah, Gilliam, & Lisa, 2013; Wessels, 2014; Georgis, Donna Mae Ford,

& Ali, 2014). Little can be found in Asian, especially mainland China. This chapter mainly focuses on describing the parent school interaction programs outside China context.

Parental engagement conveys in parents’ presence in schooling no matter in formal school space setting or in informal space and it demands reciprocal action from the school and the parents (Carreon, Drake, &

Barton, 2005). When children are learning English parents’ effective involvement can do great help to support children’s English learning. School-family partnerships were found to be the most influential factors in improving students’ achievement, especially for English learners in America (Auerbach, 1995; Moll et al, 1992; Snider, 2000; Valdes, 2001). Effective parent teacher interactions could help children in English language learning (Shim, 2013; Baumann, 1997). Positive parent school interactions can actually lead to bene- ficial results in children’s English learning. Without parent school interactions, there might be misunder- standings among school, parent, teacher, and children. However, when a positive interaction program was created the barriers among all parties could be less. The positive outcomes in children’s English learning were produced naturally. Potential parent school interaction was developed (Ngwaru & Kwasi,2010). Ac- cording to Fletcher, Greenwood, and Parkhill (2010), parents choose to shift schools to find ways of supporting to meet their child’s learning needs, seek other evaluation of reading achievement, try to arrange extra help if they think children don't achieve much, and provide a supportive home environment for reading.

Parents valued the opportunity to know their children’s learning progress from teacher and school. They can also benefit from attending their children’s school activities (Brown & Hunter, 2009) and get more understanding of their children’s education and wellbeing at school through attending school- based activities (Ep- stein & Sanders, 2003; Garcia Coll & Chatman, 2005; National Parent Teacher Association, 2006).

Most of the parental involvement activities generated by school or communities in helping the immigrant children’ English learning focussed on the training for parents and children. After the specific scheduled training, parents and children were provided books or other reading material so that they can follow up with

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the strategies at home. The programs also concentrated in supporting in class and in after school activities.

In this way, trust was built between parent and school (Neuman, 1995; Timmons, K.&Pelletier, J., 2015;

Georgis, Donna Mae Ford, R., & Ali, 2014).

Literacy bags programme provided reading material for families to read at home with the instructions given in advance (Rowe & Fain, 2013; Deborah, Gilliam, & Lisa, 2013; Huang, 2013). Parents’ self-esteem was built with the reading story program. There was also a program which successfully built the interaction between parents and school using the visual arts (Kuma, 2011). The Mixteco-Mexican mothers in New York built a new educational ideology which was that education as a cooperative endeavour between teachers and parents and mother’s own effort in overcoming the illiteracy (Velasco, 2014). It provided good ex- amples of how parents made effort to learn language and how teachers did good impact to the family and children. The parents expect to “sustain long-term relationships with their children’s teachers has been a powerful source of direction and goal setting for the students.” (Velasco, 2014, p102). This new education ideology makes it possible that teachers and the parents build a relationship in valued and equal way with one another’s community.

For bilingual students, the school engaging programs also provided with the bilingual material. The program itself was highlighted with its specific topic and description of the session and the detailed session se- quence and key program (Wessel, 2014; Rosado, Jimenez, & Kieffer, 2015). Both parents and children were involved in the program which had very specific goals, and procedures. It provides a more specific schedule of how to train the parents in reading with their children in the way of practicing in program and after program. Parents were taught hand by hand to learn, practice, and apply these strategies. The parents aware that they should read and use the techniques they have learned to improve their children’s English language learning. The above-mentioned programs worked on specific strategies of involving parents in school related activities. While Instead of including the social and cultural aspects the Open Court Reading concentrated on comprehension, phonics, phonemic awareness, and vocabulary development (Collier & Auerbach, 2011). Their recommendations for parent programs emphasizes on the parents’ information and voice.

They also make suggestions to build the connections of English and home language in order to use home to support improving children’s English literacy.

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Similarly, in India, a study was conducted to engage parents in children’s English reading. This program encourages parents to talk about pictures and finding out the difficult words even though they are lack of proficiency in English. During the program parent-training workshop was also provided. The strategies to ensure the accuracy were: 1) use of Gujarati/Hindi phonics to form words syllabically; 2) drawing children’s attention to beginning sounds to help decode; and 3) splitting compound words into two and rereading them as whole (Wundenberg, 2012, p. 492). Parents also linked personal experience to help their children to comprehend. After eight weeks of implementation the result indicated that the parents enjoyed the engagement and children also became more confident not only in reading English but also in their school-related learning material (Wundenberg, 2012).

Henderson & Mapp (2012) found that schools that engage parents more successfully consider families’

cultural background and their needs. They also value the collaborations with families and community members. The essential part is that the school and families become partner and share the responsibilities.

3.5 Children as foreign language learners

According to Piaget (1960), children experience three stages of cognitive development. In the first stage, children believe that their thoughts are expressed only through their mouths and voices. They do not perceive that their body or head do any contribution to their thoughts. This stage happens when the children are at the age of around six. When the children grow up to around eight years old they start to believe their thoughts can be processed inside their head. Adults can influence them easily in this stage. When they reach the third stage at the year of 11-12 they do not perceive thoughts as “materialized” (Piaget, 1960, p. 39). He furthermore emphasized that it is important for adults to understand the first and second stages in order to

“contribute” to children’s “conviction” (Piaget, 1960, p. 39). This theory depicts that the development of children’s cognition is different in different ages. When children learn foreign languages their learning process can be affected by the age factors. Vygotsky (1962) argued children can only form concepts only when their cognitive development reach the “requisite level” (p. 83). He indicated in children’s native language development, they learn abstract forms when they already have spontaneous and fluent language ability.

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However, in foreign language learning they start to learn abstract forms when they do not obtain spontaneous and fluent language ability. His further statement of the relationship between foreign language learning and native language learning focused on the cognitive development. He believed when children can cognitively master their native language they can understand and make more progress in foreign language learning.

Vice versa, learning foreign language can enhance their native language learning.

It is obvious that children learn a foreign language in different ways than the adults do. Children seem to be very active in language activities that interest them. They like listening to rhythms or chant in class.

They like watching interesting video stories. Children feel less embarrassed when they talk with simple words to others. Children as foreign language learners attracted researchers’ attention recently. They are much more sensitive in learning foreign languages than adults who have their logic and abstract ways of processing grammar, as such. They can concentrate more on what interests them. Children’s acquisition of languages is through all five senses (Brown, 2007). Furthermore, Brown (2007) also suggests that teachers should help children “to overcome potential barriers to learning” (p.89). Different age group students may have different kinds of motivation. Teachers and parent could support children with different ways in different cognitive stages. Too much demanding for the young children to learn abstract knowledge seems to be fruitless. Appropriate support from the teachers and parents can enhance children’s learning outcomes.

3.5.1 Current discussions about children’s age factor in learning foreign languages

There are age-related benefits and also challenges for children learning foreign languages. According to Enever (2015), it is not clear whether the earlier start is advantageous or not in English learning context where children only take two to three hours per week rather than in the immersion or native context. The challenges for early starting have been discussed by many researchers. Cenoz (2003) argued that “children who start learning foreign language (English) later achieve distinguish better results in general than those who started earlier with the same amount of exposure in English learning” (p.91). One part of Tragant’s (2006) study concentrated on the motivation and age of onset. Under the same amount of time instruction, children starting learning English at eleven had comparatively more positive attitude than those starting at

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eight. The primary school students had lower motivation in learning English than the secondary school students had. The primary school student’s motivation might relate to external factors such as teachers and classroom activities while the older students might have clear and realistic motivation. The result of this study is consistent with the result of the study conducted in mainland China by Xu and Case (2015). The research explored age differences in motivation in learning English among mainland Chinese primary, middle and high school students (Xu & Case, 2015). The motivation of primary students learning English is not formed yet. The middle school students were integrated motivation oriented while the high school students were found to be significantly instrumental motivation oriented in learning English. In Finland, Aro and Erdmann (2015) evaluated English language skills in primary school with children who attended English day cares and those without attending English day cares. The result indicated that the students who attended English day cares did not show better English skills than those who did not attend.

More specific studies can be found in different skills of English learning in different age groups. The older group achieved higher scores in grammar. It is to be noted that the effectiveness of exposure plays more important role than the length of the exposure time (Pilar & Mayo, 2003). Older group students have better sound perception than younger group students do. They distinguish better in both vowels and conso- nants. The older group students have less foreign accent. Especially, “Students who began English instructions at the age of 11 showed significantly better sound discrimination than those who started earlier (age 8 and 4), and that in turn, those who started at age 8 discriminate better than those who started at age 4” (Luisa, Lecumberri, & and Gallardo, 2003, p.126). As regard to writing, research finding (Lasagabaster & Doiz, 2003) indicated that older group students have advantages in cognitive stage so they produce better in writing (content, organisation, vocabulary, use of language and mechanics) than the younger group. The

younger group students were influenced highly by the L1 language pronunciation and spelling (Lasagabaster

& Doiz, 2003). The difference between listening comprehension between early starters and later starters was not significant but the later starters behaved more active in the oral interview. “In order to enhance foreign language learning in a school setting, changes that guarantee sufficient exposure to and meaningful interaction in the target language have to be implemented”(Munoz, 2003, p.178). A study specifically focussed on recast of conversational interaction in English indicated that

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Adults may be more likely than children to take advantage of uptake opportunities as they arise. This maybe because adults’ cognitive and linguistic maturity allows them to switch their focus from language as communication to language as object when feedback in the form of a recast is provided to them. It does highlight once again the potential contribution of age. (Oliver & Grote, 2010,26.18).

In conclusion, Nikolov (2009) summarised that:

The widely accepted findings state that (1) adults progress at early stages of morphology and syntax faster than children do; (2) older children acquire faster than younger children do; and (3) child starters outper- form adult starters in the long run. Most parents and decision makers in foreign language contexts seem to be aware of the third point, but they mistakenly assume that young learners develop fast. (Nikolov, 2009, p. 4).

All the aforementioned studies seem to indicate that the later starters of foreign language learning benefit more than the earlier group. However, the advantages of early start in foreign language learning are also obvious. Akin and Gursoy (2013) researched the relationship between age and foreign language learning anxiety in Turkey. They found that the anxiety of learning English (failing exam, making mistake, peer pressure, etc.) increased from younger group to older group. The youngest group students (4^th grade) bear least pressure while the older groups (7^th,8^th grade) had higher pressure. In other words, the younger group students had the most positive belief in learning English. Lefever (2006) has summarized the characteristics of young learners in learning foreign language:

Young learners at the transition level (aged 5-8) generally have the following characteristics. They are:

keen and enthusiastic; curious and inquisitive; outspoken; imaginative and creative; active and like to move around; interested in exploration; learn by doing/hands-on experience; holistic, natural learners searching for meaningful messages. (Lefever, 2006, pp27-28).

Brown (2007) also analysed the characteristics of young children in learning foreign languages from different perspectives (intellectual development, attention span, sensory input, affective factors, and authentic, meaningful language). He claimed that the young children were still in the process of intellectual development so that abstract grammar rules and difficult concepts would make them more confused. In terms of attention span, a mistaken belief might be that children have less attention span than adult has. However,

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Brown (2007) argued that only when the language tasks were too boring or difficult children had short attention span. When children started watching their favourite cartoon they would sit there and enjoyed it the whole day if no one called them to stop. There are also affective factors which children really care. They might get pressure from the peers when they make mistakes or get from the way of adult talking to them.

Adults should help children overcome barriers and be patient and supportive. Children tend to choose languages which are authentic and meaningful to learn. They learn language which are useful to them immedi- ately and in context. Therefore, a whole language teaching is important and obviously better than fragile language (Brown, 1994).

To sum up, there are challenges for children learning foreign languages as compared to the adult learners due to the immature both cognitively and linguistically. Meanwhile children’s age-related benefits are also apparent. They bear less anxiety in foreign language learning (Akin & Gursoy, 2013). The characteristics of children learning foreign languages are very important for teachers in classroom activities arrangement. It is also important for parents to consider helping their children in learning foreign language learning. If parents are aware of these characteristics and support their children in more appropriate ways, the outcomes could be more effective. At the same time if age factor is considered when parent school cooperate the children can have a better learning both physically and emotionally.

3.5.2 Children’s motivation factor in foreign language learning

According to Dornyei (2001), the definition of motivation refers to the choice of a particular action, the persistence with it, and the effort expended on it (p.8). Furthermore, he explains that motivation is the reason people want to do something, the time people would rather spend on this activity, and the amount of efforts they would like to make on it.

The motivation in second language learning is defined by Gardener (1985) as in the following:

First, the individual displays some goal-directed activity, and second, that person expends some effort.

Moreover, questioning the person would show a desire or ‘want’ for the goal in question and favorable at-

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titudes toward the activity of learning the language. In short, motivation involves four aspects, a goal, ef- fortful behavior, a desire to attain the goal and favorable attitudes toward the activity in question. (P.50) Furthermore, he argued that motivation cannot be real motivation if one only has the desire to learn but does not do any effort, especially, the young children’s motivation and actions of learning a second language are significantly affected by their parents’ encouragement (Gardener, 1985). He also argued that:

The children’s perception of their parents’ support is not directly related to their performance in class, though it is related to their willingness to continue language study and in their own assessments of how hard they work to learn the second language. (Gardner, 1985, p.122)

He believes warm and supportive encouraging environment provide the child better motivation in learning second language more effectively.

Meanwhile Dickinson (1995) confirmed the important role motivation plays in children’s foreign language learning by arguing that children’s own motivation is the driven force of their learning rather than outside factors.

Motivation for children in learning foreign languages can be various. Children have different motivations in learning English. It might be academic motivation or playing computer games which are in English.

Some children may like learning English just because they like watching English cartoons. When children have motivation in learning they would engage more in learning actively. According to the types of motivation, the result (Tagant, 2006) revealed that both primary school students and secondary school students considered learning English to help with their future work, communicate and travel. Specifically, a comparative study about motivation in English learning in China, Japan and Iran indicated that China, like Japan, has extremely exam-oriented educational system. English is a subject for university entrance exam. English proficiency is a requirement in recruiting jobs in international companies in China. The motivation for Chi- nese students to learn English is more instrumental to get better job and better score in the future. The students feel obligatory to learn English for their parents’ purpose. Students are financially relied on their parents in university. Most of the young people choose the job their parents prefer even though they do not like (Taguchi, Magid, & Papi, 2009). However, it is also true that, for young children, when they have less pressure about entrance exam they have less instrumental motivation of learning English. The motivation for

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children to learn English are quite different from adults. Henry (2013) discussed how digital games motivate students in learning English in Sweden. He further argued that the digital games were popular among students in their life outside school. Students can also learn English through online and offline games. This also initiates some ideas such as teachers could make plans to combine the classroom teaching with the students’ real, authentic lives (Henry, 2013). Similarly, Stockwell (2013) also addressed the benefits of tech- nology in English-language teaching and learning. He illustrated that through social technologies such as Facebook, emails, and blogs, students can communicate with the native speakers in authentic ways. Mobiles become popular in language learning. There are many devices which support language learning. However, he argued mobiles were still less accepted by learners to use in learning. They prefer to use it in casual life.

According to Enever (2015), the digital technologies can enhance parent school partnership. Through online programs, children, especially who have less time of English class in school, can learn English in a relax environment.

It is very important for parents, teachers, and school to know what really motivate children so that they can provide efficient support. On the contrary, if children’s motivation factor is not considered the outcome of supporting can be negative. Since in China, English is taught as a foreign language. Children have fewer chances to learn from a native context. Their motivation in cultural perspectives also affects their attitude in learning English. Even though most of the children are instrumental oriented motivation in China (Taguchi, Magid, & Papi, 2009), children are also motivated by many other factors. When parents understand their children’s own motivation they can support their children in a better way. Schools may also change their environment or promote some cultural activities to motivate children learn English in a more authentic ways.

Teachers may also work on forming small informal English learning clubs for children so that they can have a nice community.

The importance of considering children’s motivation for parents is apparent. Tragant (2006) found all students who showed positive attitude in learning English who gained better achievement, regardless of age.

According to Brown (2007), children’s motivation and affective factors of learning foreign languages should be carefully considered when there is parental involvement in supporting foreign language learning. The quality of parental involvement is much more important than the quantity of involvement. A recent joint

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research (Moroni, etal., 2015) focused on the quantity and quality of parental involvement with supervision of children’s homework. The result showed large amount of intrusive parental involvement did not impact positively children’s learning outcomes in German language learning and reading achievement (Moroni, etal., 2015). However, the quality of parental involvement influence positively in children’s learning outcomes. Students who reported more supportive involvement from their parents showed higher German grades and reading achievement while students who reported more intrusive involvement showed lower German grades and reading achievement (Moroni, et al., 2015). It is apparent that good quality of parents’

support lead to better result. Not all parental involvement can bring positive outcomes.

Children have much potential to use the language to interact with others. Younger children show slow- ness in not only language skills but also in cognitive development. The division of language into skills or topics does not fit the appropriate age of young children in learning English. Vocabulary and interaction seems more important for young children. Vocabulary conveys the authentic meaning while children learn new things through interaction. Grammar can be treated in the children's interaction development. Cameron (2001) summarized the key learning principles for children:

Children actively try to construct meaning.

Children need space for language growth.

Language in use carries cues to meaning that may not be noticed.

Development can be seen internalizing from social interaction.

Children's foreign language learning depends on what they experience. (Cameron, 2001, pp.19-20) The above-mentioned principles could provide good initiative ideas for parent supporting children' Eng- lish learning when teachers plan the activities, and when parent school interaction happens. For instance, teachers may design the activities with the consideration of what vocabularies are more related to the

children' real life. Leave children enough time in digestion and reflection about what they have learned. Par- ent school interaction provides authentic environment in children's English learning. The experience of exploring new language may relate to the real life of children. With the considerations of these principles, when parent, no matter individually, or cooperatively support their children in learning English, children's intrinsic motivation could be generated. Pinter (2006) argued that children do not have advantages in learn-

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ing languages as adult have in the following ways: adults can summarize abstract rules; can make compari- sons with first language learning; can reflect their learning, can use useful strategies. On the contrary, children learn the foreign languages if they think they are fun and useful in conveying meaning. However, this does not mean that there are no advantages for children to learn a foreign language. In fact, Pinter (2006) claimed that children can benefit learning English in the following aspects.

 Develop children’s basic communication abilities in English

 Encourage enjoyment and motivation

 Promote learning about other cultures

 Develop children’s cognitive skills

 Develop children’s metalinguistic awareness

 Encourage ‘learning to learn’. (Pinter, 2006, p. 38)

All the benefits listed above may encourage parents, teachers, and schoolwork in an effective way to support children learning English. It is natural that when children have positive intrinsic motivation they would en- joy the learning process and harp the good outcomes of learning. The figure (Brown, 1994) below suggested in detail how parent and school could support children in exploring their intrinsic motivation.

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Table 3. From Extrinsic to Intrinsic Motivation in Educational Institutions (Brown, 2007, p.91) Extrinsic

Pressures

Intrinsic Innovations

Motivational Results SCHOOL CURRICULUM learner-centered

personal goal-setting individualization

self-esteem self-actualization decide for self PARENTAL EXPECTATIONS family solidarity

negotiated agreements

love, intimacy acceptance, respect for wisdom

SOCIETY’S EXPECTATIONS (conformity)

security of comfortable routines

task-based teaching

community, belonging identity, harmony security

TESTS & EXAMS peer evaluation

self-diagnosis

level-check exercises

experience self-knowledge

IMMEDIATE GRATIFICATION (“M & Ms”)

set long-term goals focus on big picture patience will reward

self-actualization

MAKE MONEY! content-based teaching

vocational education workplace ESL, ESP

cooperation harmony

COMPETITION cooperative learning

group work the class is a team

community strength, status security

NEVER FAIL risk-taking,

innovation, creativity

learn from mistakes nobody’s perfect

“c’ est la vie”

Teachers, schools and parents could find ideas and solutions to support children to explore the intrinsic motivation. For example, parents can encourage their children to learn but not in a straight way. Parents could have nice talk about their children’s English learning and show positive aspiration. Children may feel warm caring from their parents. This could probably do help with the parent-child interaction and explore their

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motivation in learning English. On the other hand, schools could give children more autonomy to explore what they want to learn, how they want to learn. Students’ motivation in learning in school could develop well when they have large space in decision-making. The teachers could also develop their lessons based on the students’ autonomy. Parent, school, and teacher could work in a harmony way so that students feel warm and being cared in learning English. Their intrinsic motivation could be promoted.

In conclusion, with the understanding and consideration of age and motivation factors, parents, teachers, and school could provide more effective and age appropriate support for children. Not only children can benefit from it all three parties (parents, teacher, and school) would harp positive result.

4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This case study has three aims: exploring concrete actions parents do to support their children in English learning and their consideration of children’s age and motivation factors in their supporting; figuring out current programs the school has to involve parents and the consideration of children’s age, motivation factor;

describing the hopes and ideas from parents and teachers’ view for future parent school interaction and the school’s future plans.

Thus the research questions are:

1. What do parents do to support their children’s foreign (English) language learning? How do they consider children’s age and motivation factors when they support?

2. What does the school do to involve parents to support their children’s foreign (English) language learning? How does the school consider children’s age and motivation factors when it involves parents?

3. What are the parents’ and teachers’ hope and ideas for future parent-school interaction with EFL education? What are the school’s plans for future parent school interaction programs?

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5 RESEARCH DESIGN

To get a deep understanding of what parents do and what programs the school do to involve parents in supporting children’s English learning, qualitative research method was used. Interview was conducted with 6 parents, 5 teachers and 1 centre manager. Invitation message (see appendix 2) was sent to the participants via we chat. We chat is a popular communication tool nowadays in China. It has the function of voice chatting and video chat. The teachers and centre manager accepted the invitation. Interviewing time was made according to the participants’ own schedule. Four parents confirmed the acceptance of interview. Two parents did not reply. Another two parents were invited and they confirmed with the interview. The background information about the parent participants is presented in table 4.

Table 4. Background information of parent participants Number of parent participants 6

Average age of parents 40

Average age of children 9

The youngest child 7

6 MATERIALS AND METHODS 6.1 Subject selection

Interview participants were selected according to the purpose of this study. The purpose of this case study is to describe what parents are doing to support their children in English learning and how they consider their children’s age and motivation factors in their support. It also aims to understand what the school do to involve parents in children’s English learning and how children’s age and motivation factors are considered by school. Finally, it aims to describe parents’ and teachers’ hopes and ideas for future parent school interaction and the school’s future plan. Since the study needs to collect data from three perspectives: parents, school and the teachers. With this purpose, parents, teachers and school centre manager were invited to

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participate the interview. Referring to the number of interview participants, Kvale (2007) argued that the number should not be too less that there is not enough information or too many that makes the analysis could not go deep to explore the phenomenon. In this case study, six parents, five teachers and one centre manger were chosen. Five of the parents described their English level as basic level. One parent described her level of English in detail:

P 5: reading is ok (college level), speaking is not good, sometimes learning with her, it also inspires me, remember something, sometimes I also feel that my English level is improved, it seems not that difficult. (Parent 5)

Table 5. Overview of data collection and analysis

Data collection Type of data Data analysis

Parent Teacher

Centre manager

One to one we chat voice interview

Content analysis Category coding

6.2 Interview

With consideration of the “theoretical concepts of the research topic” (Kvale, 2007, p.56) to work on the analysing interview, the main concepts and contents of the theoretical background were briefly categorized (table 6) in order to form target interview questions. Ultimately, get the answers for the research questions.

Table 6. Categories from the theoretical background Parental involve-

ment in general

Forms of parental involvement

Parental involvement in foreign language learning

Parental involvement in China

Parent school interaction

Age factor Motivation factor

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Based on the categories from the table 6 and research questions, interview questions were developed. Be- hind each interview question, there are red marks indicating which concepts or categories it belongs to the theoretical background (Appendix 1)

Table 7. Interview questions relating to the theoretical background Theoretical background Interview questions for

parents

Interview questions for teachers

Interview questions for school manager

Forms of parental involvement

5 (perception), 6, 10, 11, 17

3,4

Significance of parental involvement

1, 2

Parental involvement in foreign language learning

14, 15, 16, 18,

Age factor 3, 4, 8, 9 5

Motivation factor 1, 2, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13 7

Parent school interaction 19, 20, 23, 24 6, 8, 9, 10 1, 2, 3, 4,5, 8,9 Age factor in parent

school interaction

4, 21 7

Motivation factor in parent school interaction

2, 22 6

As suggested by Kavle (2007), the interview questions should be developed according to the research questions. Thus, the interview questions in the case study were also indicated with which research questions referring to (Appendix 1).

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Table 8. Interview questions relating to the research questions Research questions Interview

questions for parents

Interview questions for teachers

Interview questions for school manager

1. What do parents do to support their children’s foreign (Eng- lish) language learning? How do they consider the age and motivation factors when they support.

1-18 1-4, 7

2. What does the school do to involve parents to support children’s foreign (English) language learning? How does the school consider children’s age and motivation factor in their program?

19-22 5, 6, 8 1-8

3. What are the parents’

and teachers’ hope &

ideas for future parent-school interaction with EFL education?

What is the school’s plan in future parent school interaction program?

23, 24 9, 10 9

In this case study, the longest interview is 37.02 minute while the shortest on is 10.43 minute. The average is 27.62 minute.

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6.3 Qualitative content analysis

According to Krippendorff (2004) content analysis “provides new insights, increases a researcher’s understanding of particular phenomena, or informs practical actions” (p.18). This research aims at exploring the deep understanding of a phenomenon. To be more specific, it is going to explore what actual actions parents are currently making to support their children’s English learning, what the school and teacher are currently doing to involve parents into the parent school interactions, what the ideas and hopes parents and teachers have for future parent school interaction programs. Mayring (2000) discussed the procedures of content analysis as inductive category development and deductive category development. The steps of the inductive category are:

1. Research question, theoretical background

2. Establishment of a selection criterion, category definition, level of abstraction 3. Working through the texts line by line, new category formulation or subsumption 4. Revision of categories and rules after 10-505 of texts

5. Final work through the material 6. Building of main categories if useful 7. Intra-? Inter-coder agreement check

8. Final results, ev. Frequencies, interpretation (p.80)

In short, Cho & Lee (2014) summarised the main steps of analysis are: selecting the unit of analysis, creating categories, and establishing themes. Since the logic of the content analysis requires the theme of categories formulated previously with the considerations of theoretical background (Mayring, 2000). This research used the inductive procedure because it fits the development of the research. At the beginning, the research questions were formulated after reading relevant previous studies about the big topic “parental involvement in children’s foreign language learning”. Then special attention was paid to “parental involvement in children’s foreign language learning”, previous studies about “parent school interaction programs”, and the consideration of children’s age and motivation factors in “parental involvement in children’s foreign language learning” and “parent school interaction programs”. After formulating the research questions and analysed the previous studies about the topic, the preliminary categories were made according to the theoretical back-

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ground. According to Krippendorff (2004), “Categorial distinctions define units by their membership in a class or category-by their having something in common” (p.105).

When categories were made, the transcripts were read through line by line. Texts fit the categories were constructed and named by the category definitions (words or phrases). Then the texts were checked to make sure it goes to the correct categories. Then the texts were read through again to check the proper arrangement of categories. Finally, the categories which closely relate to the research questions were put together, leaving out the irrelevant categories. Thomas (2006) summarized the process of inductive coding as: prepa- ration of raw data files; close reading of text; creation of categories; overlapping coding and uncoded text;

and continuing revision and refinement of category system. In this case study, firstly, every individual tran- script was labelled with the information of participants as in the following:

I=interviewer (me) P=parent participants

P1=parent participant1, P2=parent participant2, etc.

T=teacher participant

T1=teacher participant1, T2=teacher participant2, etc.

Centre manager=centre manager

The raw data was filed into Microsoft folder with the information of participants.

Secondly, the transcripts was read carefully and translated from Chinese to English and then I got the whole understanding of the categories. According to Krippendorff (2004), “Validity is that quality of research results that leads to us to accept them as true, as speaking about the real world of people, phenomena, events, experiences, and actions.” (p.313). The transcripts were sent to a lady who obtained the master degree in the UK and now works in a teacher training centre in shanghai, China. She read the transcripts first and then listened to the audio to confirm reliability of the transcripts.

Thirdly, the texts relating to different categories (from the theoretical background) was cut and copied to each different named Microsoft word file for further analyzing. Fourthly, the uncoded texts were left after the categorizing. Overlapping texts were decided by the percentage of content and categorized into the most

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relating categories. Finally, within each category, new categories emerging from the data were made (table 9). Appropriate quotations expressing the main content of the categories were put together.

Table 9. Category and coding Preliminary categories

based on the theoretical background

Categories emerging from the data

Data from:

forms of parental involvement in general and in foreign language learning

Ways of parental supporting in children’s English learning in the English training centre

Parent participants

Importance of parental involvement in children's academic education and foreign language learning

Parents’ , teachers’ and centre manager’s perceptions of importance of parental involvement in children’s English learning

Parent participants, teacher participants and centre manager

parental involvement in foreign language learning (parent's ways of supporting and current school's program involving parents)

Parental supporting in children’s English learning in the English training centre in China

Parent participants, teacher participants and the school centre manager

parental involvement in general and English learning china

Ways of parental supporting in children’s English learning in an English training centre in China

Parent participants

current running Parent The programs an English Parent participants teacher partici-

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school interaction programs outside China context

training centre in China which involve parents in children’s English learning

pants and the school centre manager

Children's age factor in foreign language learning

Parents and the school’s consideration of children’s age factor in learning Eng- lish in the case study Eng- lish training centre

Parent participants, school centre manager

Children's motivation factors in foreign language learning

Parents and the school’s consideration of children’s motivation factors when they support children in learning English in the case study English training centre

Parent participants, school centre manger

The categories emerging from data were analyzed referring to the preliminary categories based on the research questions to answer research questions.

6.4 Research ethics

At first, I sent an invitation to six parent participants, five teacher participants, and the centre manager participants through we chat message (Appendix 2). Except two parent participants, other participants agreed to attend the study. Another two parent participants were invited. They agree to attend the study. Consent letters (Appendix 3) were later sent to the participants by email. To confirm the participants have already read the content of the consent letter, the contents were again sent by we chat (A Chinese online communica-

Parental involvement in children's foreign language learning : improving 6-12 year-old pupils' English through parent-school interaction: a case study in China

Contents

List of tables